Carlos Guestrin, assistantprofessor of computer science and machine learning, has been appointed theFinmeccanica Chair in Computer Science for 2009-2011.

Named by Popular Science to its2008 "Brilliant 10" list, Guestrin's long-term research interest is developingefficient algorithms and methods for designing, analyzing and controllingcomplex real-world systems. His Cascades algorithm is a powerful tool for gatheringinformation with the least amount of effort, whether it is determining thenumber and placement of sensors in wireless networks or which blogs to read toget news as quickly as possible.

Endowed by the Italian conglomerateFinmeccanica in 1989, the chair is awarded to outstanding young facultymembers. Previous winners include Guy Blelloch, Manuela Veloso, Hui Zhang andSrinivasan Seshan.